Bearing Witness to the Inhuman at M? Lai: Museum, Ritual, Pilgrimage

This article explores how the Son M? Memorial and Museum and its associated community activities and programs commemorate and memorialize the 1968 M? Lai Massacre and its aftermath. The museum provides space for reflection and bearing witness to the profound suffering in the Massacre. B'earing witness' means reliving or remembering and coming to know an experience, especially a traumatic one like M? Lai. Witness bearers are both those reporting first-hand experiences and memories, and those listening to and learning about the experiences. When locals and visitors alike participate in the activities and rituals at Son M?, in pilgrimages to M? Lai, or in touring the memorial and museum, an opportunity is available to recognize the “existential legitimacy” of the events, experiences, and memories. Bearing witness can open pathways to individual and societal healing as well as identity redefinition

Planetary Consciousness, Witnessing the Inhuman, and Transformative Learning: Insights from Peace Pilgrimage Oral Histories and Autoethnographies

This article describes insights and consciousness transformations reported in several contemporary peace pilgrimage oral histories and autoethnographies, including my own. Autoethnography is a form of autobiographical writing that stresses the interpretation of experiences in their psychosocial, cultural, and historical contexts. Peace pilgrimages are typically self-defined journeys and projects which may be inward and metaphorical, or which may involve actual travel to destinations that memorialize historical events of mass killing and profound suffering, and places that envision, cultivate and educate for global or inner peace. The insights and learnings include (a) the call to journey and other out-of-the-ordinary communications; (b) understanding the transformative learning process; (c) glimpsing the meaning of planetary consciousness; and (d) bearing witness to the inhuman. These paradigmatic themes may be applicable to one’s personal search for meaning, and as signposts for collective, societal healing from psychic and social wounding and traumas. The themes may be useful for educators and researchers in peace studies, religious studies, history, biography, philosophy, psychology and consciousness studies

Pictures of Hearts and Daggers: Strong Emotions Are Expressed in Young Adolescents’ Drawings of their Attitudes towards Mathematics

Enthusiasm for learning mathematics often declines in early adolescence. The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) (2003) found that 50% of fourth-graders but only 29% of eight-graders agreed strongly with the statement, “I enjoy learning mathematics.” The present study explored attitudes towards mathematics through the use of adolescents’ drawings and assessed the reliability and validity of drawings of math. One hundred twenty-nine U.S. students (mean age = 13.7 years) responded to these instructions, “Draw a picture of math and write about math. You can draw your feelings about math and your experiences with mathematics.” Drawings were scored by independent raters according to sixteen criteria; with interrater reliability ranging from .67 to 1.00. One hundred and one students also expressed their levels of agreement on a four-point scale with the TIMSS statements about learning, valuing, and enjoying mathematics. Attitudes towards mathematics expressed in drawings significantly correlated with attitudes expressed in the TIMSS statements about mathematics. On their drawings many students expressed strong feelings about math ranging from “I absolutely love math!” to “You die math.” This study demonstrated that adolescents’ drawings provide a good means for assessing young adolescents’ thoughts and feelings about math. The study also included comparisons of drawings of mathematics collected from 96 young adolescents from Ghana and South Africa